See America First - California, Part 2
Set in a northern California valley in the 30s, Carlisle Floyd's 1971 Of Mice and Men, based upon the Steinbeck novel that was also reworked by the author into a play, examines what happens when a powderkeg of men's desire is set off by one flirtatious, forbidden woman.
Curley is the owner of a ranch worked by migrant farmers; his wife -- who is never given a name during the course of the opera -- is the only female character in the opera's cast. She makes her desires and temperament clear from her first entrance in Act I, Scene 2: the libretto describes her as wearing red mules trimmed with ostrich; her first line, to her husband, is the petulant "Curley, I want to go out tonight." She's no Bible-toting mama figure to her husband's workers, as is Minnie's function amongst the miners in La Fanciulla del West. But, married to Curley only two weeks, she is already bored and lonely -- "I'm tired of being cooped up here," she sings, "Of never hearin' another voice, of lookin' at four walls all day!" But Curley only calls her a tramp, when she threatens to approach other men for the attention he won't give her.
For the men's part, we know that they are starving for female companionship. We first hear them singing a ballad offstage, about a "honky-tonk gal" who broke their hearts. When Slim, one of the hands, announces his dog has just had puppies, they eagerly call out that they want one. Like the simple-minded, lumbering Lennie, new to the ranch, they too want something soft to treat with affection...if not a woman, a puppy will do. In fact, being as Curley is their boss, the men want nothing of the one woman within easy reach, even though she sounds willing to meet them halfway. Times are hard; they need their work more than they need her. As soon as she is out of earshot, they sympathize with the demands they imagine she must be making upon Curley's virility.
This opera must be the only one in which an old dog often garners reviews -- the elderly Candy's pet, whom the other men lead off and shoot because they feel he (the dog) smells up the bunkhouse. The offstage fidocide is set against a song by a man we only know as the Ballad Singer who, just as Larkens does in Fanciulla, sets a wistful tone ("Movin' on, always movin' on") describing the migrant workers' lonely, wandering life.
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